


It'll Be Okay

by PitchBlackWings



Series: Errormare Shipfest! [5]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Along With The Broken Hearts Given To Me By My Readers, Angst, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Death, Fighting, Grief, I'm Saving It For Dinner, M/M, Please don't, Poisoning, Sadness, Slow Death, Violence, Writing Prompt: I Would Do It Again, angst no comfort, it's Rotting by Now, poor Nightmare, poor error, poor everyone really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:15:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22655356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitchBlackWings/pseuds/PitchBlackWings
Summary: Prompt: I would do it again, for youWARNING, HEAVY ANGST, NO HAPPY ENDING HERE, ONLY ANGST AND MORE ANGST
Relationships: Error/Nightmare, Errormare
Series: Errormare Shipfest! [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1491080
Comments: 44
Kudos: 89





	1. The Poison

**Author's Note:**

> Mary_Dawn's recent comment on my other work, A Living Nightmare, partially inspired this monstrosity
> 
> I'm so sorry
> 
> ~~No, I'm not~~

Nightmare was fighting Ink in an Under!Swap AU.

It was already difficult against the Creator himself, but the positive feelings in the AU were slowly sapping his strength. He had tried multiple times to form a portal, but Ink would always get to him before he could escape. It was wearing on him, and he was way past the 'Okay, now I should start worrying' point.

"You're not getting away!"

Ink's tone was fierce and angry as he swiped his paintbrush over the portal Nightmare had tried to re-form to escape. "You won't get away this time!"

Nightmare sprung back, eyes narrowed. His magic reservoir were dangerously low- if he tried to teleport away, Ink could track him, and he might not have enough energy to form another portal to a different AU. That took an insane amount of magic, and he was spent already.

Shards of corruption formed and shot down at the other skeleton, raining down in a deadly black hail.

Ink swept them away from his person with a single swipe of his paintbrush, a sneer on his face. He knew Nightmare was tired out.

"Once I'm done with you, I'll finally be able to take care of Error," he exclaimed gleefully. "After all these years, we'll finally be rid of him!"

Nightmare jolted. "What are you talking about?"

"I can't kill _you_ or Dream will die too," Ink snorted. "But if Error dies... well, I was here long before him, and I'll be here long after, hahah!"

He pulled out a single angry red and black vial.  
"I splash this on an immortal, and they'll be pulled into the Void and killed by that. Took me hundreds of years to make, and I don't have enough of my paints left to make another one... but all I need is one, right? The liquid will even re-form in the vial unless it's used on an actual immortal, and it'll come back to me! There's no way to escape this time! Error will come to save you, and then..." He looked genuinely happy about the impending murder.

Ink stopped talking to rush Nightmare, taking vicious swipes at him with acidic paint on the tip of his paintbrush. It was clear he simply wanted Nightmare out of the way ~~to get to Error.~~

The Guardian of Negativity retaliated with his tentacles, pushing Ink away only to be charged again, and again. His mind was racing. 

_Error dead- Error can't die, everyone else will die- we can't keep up negativity, I can't keep up anything without him-_

The vial was a deadly tool with one target, and it wouldn't stop until it had tasted blood. It didn't seem like there was another option, with no death, and no life spilled. If Ink hadn't been his signature scatterbrain here and now, Error would have been dead soon. He might still die soon. 

...But what if it was a different life? What if someone else was the victim? 

Nightmare couldn't think, he couldn't do anything but act, using some of the last of his energy to leap forwards and grab the vial from Ink's satchel, tar-like corruption smearing on the rest of the containers. At the same time, he activated an emergency link he kept hidden in his jacket, using the last of his magical energies to send out a desperate S.O.S. call. ~~He wanted to see them one last time...~~

Ink snarled, rushing forwards to try and steal back the vial, hand extended. In his weakened state in this positive AU, Nightmare would have the poison wrestled out of his grasp in an instant. 

He clenched harder around the vial ~~purposefully~~ instinctively, shattering the glass and letting the liquid sink into his tendril.

Ink stopped dead in his tracks, mouth open, eyelights gone. It was obvious he had never thought that would happen. 

"...You're going to die...."

"Yeah, I know, thanks," Nightmare snarled as forcefully as possible, almost collapsing onto the ground. He was weakened already to almost the point of fainting, and the whatever-it-was Ink had concocted wasn't helping, that's for sure.

Half of him was hopeful that Ink had made an unexplicable mistake- forgotten the real vial at home or made a mistake creating it and it was actually harmless, or at the very least, survivable.

But when he fell to his knees with no warning, he knew it was a futile hope. His magic was already weakening, eyelight wavering, corruption flowing more freely. ~~He was dying.~~

Ink was panicking now. Nightmare couldn't even die in peace...  
"Oh Stars, Nightmare is dying, Dream is dying--!" His voice was shaking with dread. "There- I didn't make- _there isn't an antidote yet!!_ "

He opened a portal with a hasty swipe of his paintbrush, presumably to the Doodle Sphere. Nightmare didn't care much anymore, the screaming pains running through his Soul taking up all his attention.

_Error... you'll be okay now..._


	2. Sunshine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Error got the emergency signal. Finally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw this wonderful unfinished thing in my works and thought:
> 
> "Self, what if you started working on this again?"
> 
> SO HERE YOU ARE

Error opened a portal into the Under!Swap AU copy.

Nightmare's emergency beacon had flickered on while nobody was watching, and Error was absolutely furious. There was supposed to be a sound system, an alarm of some sort, but it wasn't working. Apparently the beacon had been flashing for seven minutes before being reactivated just three minutes ago, and until now nobody had seen it. Once this all blew over, they REALLY needed to get that fixed...

He ran towards the beacon's signal, leaping over debree on the ground- evidence of a vicious fight. This was worrisome.

He burst into a clearing, gasping for breath, when he finally spotted Nightmare.

The same breath he was fighting for was easily stolen away.

Nightmare was in a very bad way- corruption was leaking from his tendrils in unnatural quantities, and his body was raked with coughing every few seconds. The Guardian was collapsed on the ground, too weak to even get up.

"No... no... NIGHTMARE!!"  
Error ran to the other's side, desperation making his voice catch in his throat. "You'll be okay… I'm here now... what happened?!"

Nightmare looked at the other ruefully.

"Ink created a potion that was supposed to kill you, Err. I think it would have worked, based on my reaction..."

Error blanched at the implications. "No. You... you're going to be fine. You have to be fine. It's... this can't..."

Nightmare reached up a hand, wincing at the effort, and touched Error's cheek with bittersweet fondness. "We both know that isn't true, Err. I can feel myself going away."

"B-but we _need_ you," Error half-sobbed, looking down at Nightmare through eyelights blurred with tears. "I need you. You c-can't die!"

"Tell that to my body, Nightmare said, chuckling grimly. He winced, coughing up more corruption. "…ouch…"

Error buried his face in Nightmare's hand, crying softly. "I need you. W-we all need you...!"

Nightmare smiled weakly. "...I know. I'm sorry, Error."

He used one of his least drippy tendrils to wipe away Error's tears as best he could.

"Take care of the gang for me? Please…?"  
Nightmare sounded desperate as he spoke quietly. "Error, they need a leader.."

"I-I'll try, Nighty," Error whispered hoarsely. "I swear i'll do my best."

Nightmare relaxed, dropping his tentacle from the Destroyer's face. "...Thank you."

Error clung to him as if his world were ending. To the glitch, it might as well have been.

"I'm sorry," Nightmare whispered again, barely a sigh. "I failed you and the gang. As a father... as a mate... I let you all down."

 _"N-never,"_ Error gasped sternly. "You were the b-best father in the Multiverse, Nighty. I love you more than anything i-in any world," he sniffled, half glaring, half smiling down at the fading skeleton.

"…I'm glad," Nightmare whispered, closing his eye.

"…Stay with me, please, love…?"  
Nightmare's voice was wet and pained, but Error could cared less. He nodded fiercely, tears running freely from his sockets. The black Guardian sighed in contentment.

 _H…he always loved it when i sang…_

Error began to shakily hum a lullaby. It was an old one, a simple one. Nightmare had taught it to him. He always sang it to the glitch whenever he was feeling down...

Nightmare relaxed further as Error hummed, and the Destroyer worked up the courage to start singing, remembering all the things Nightmare had done for him.

_"Y...you are my sunshine...."_

Nightmare bandaging his wounds after a fight with Ink or Dream.

_"My only sunshine...."_

Nightmare calming him down after a panic attack.

_"You make me happy.."_

A night of watching the stars together. Just the two of them.

_"When skies are g-grey..."_

Nightmare slumped in Error's arms, his breathing beginning to slow down.

_"You... are my sunshine..."_

Error's arms became coated with corruption as it melted away from Nightmare's body, revealing pristine white bone.

_"My only s-sunshine..."_

Error's breath hitched at the sight of the crown on Nightmare's head. He was always a prince to Error... his prince... his king... his everything.

_"Please... don't take..."_

Nightmare's breathing stopped, and Error's voice cracked horribly at the sigh of his bones beginning to crumble.

_"M-my sunshine..."_

He held his mate's body close to his chest as if to keep him together. To keep him safe and alive.

_"...A… away..."_

The dust crumbled through Error's hands and arms, leaving only the crown in his grip as he knelt on the ground, frozen.

His wail of utter _despair_ would have ran knives of ice down your back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still not sorry and I never will be  
> The Hammer of Doom is Smashing Down Full Force.
> 
> I honestly almost made myself cry writing this and I don't know what to think of that tbh


	3. The Death of Gods 1/2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have no words of explanation, no excuse. Accept this as the monstrosity that it is.
> 
> Ink's actions have consequences on both sides of the spectrum, and the dust flies in the wind, not caring about borders anymore. Free in death as they never were in life.
> 
> TW: Talking about death, kind of? Dying, grief. Good stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh heheh hehahaha-
> 
> Don't read this if you are a sensitive soul. I read angst in most of my sparce free time, and this still almost made me cry. Heavy content ahead, this is your last warning...

Dream coughed weakly, holding a gloved hand to his mouth. His eyes widened when his fingers came away dripping with yellow magic, specks of dust dissolving in the ichor.

The Guardian of Positivity was trembling on the couch in the Doodle Sphere, having collapsed there in a bout of sudden weakness about a minute ago. His hands twitched, feeling a growing numbness spreading from his fingertips.

"I don't… what's happening…?" Dream choked on another wet cough, teeth stained yellow-gold from the flecks of magic he spat up. His eyelights were unfocused, hazy, sockets watering in pain. Tremors shook his body, cold and hot at the same time, waves of ice and searing iron siezing his bones.

His Soulbeat stuttered, and the pulsing that came from between his fourth and fifth ribs weakened considerably, struggling to move the magic throughout Dream's body.

His eyelights began to slowly sputter out, vision blurring at the edges, but not weak enough to miss the portal that opened in the middle of the living room right in front of him. A figure leaped through, panic tangible in the air as the new skeleton dragged a large paintbrush through the portal as well, staring in horror at Dream's mostly limp body.

A jolt of recognition ~~that really shouldn't have taken that long to appear, what was going on, why was everything so fuzzy, like wading through cotton in his skull~~ finally hit the Guardian of Positivity.

"…Ink…? What's going on… what's happening to me?"

The God of Creativity only responded with a heart-wrenching sob, rushing to his side to drop to his knees.

"It's my fault," he cried, clutching the others' clothes and staring in horror at his crumbling fingertips ~~why were they crumbling, was that bad? It looked just like sugar was falling from his fingers. Was he made of sugar?~~ , "It's all my fault, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry-"

Dream felt himself frown at the other's words, trying to pat Ink's skull with his fingers, accidentally brushing more dust onto the other's bones. "We can fix... whatever it is...? It's okay, you don't… haveta cry?"

Ink's response was only a heart-wrenching wail, repeating his last frantic words with a hopeless tint that hurt Dream's chest for some reason.

"I'm so _sorry-!!_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well well well. It's been about a year, huh? And this is finally almost done. The angst has almot reached its peak, the tear ducts have run out of blood and tears and dried out in the sun long ago.
> 
> Tell me if you cried, because I almost did writing this. The feels are heavy heavy heavy here. One of my favorites on ao3!
> 
> Feel free to scream at me in the comments! I may be a monster, but I'm a _sociable_ scourage to happiness and society in general! ^^
> 
> One more chapter....

**Author's Note:**

> I am not, and will never be, sorry for this. I am in fact unreasonably proud of this monstrosity that i've made. >:3


End file.
